Sa wad dee kah! (And hello)

I haven’t had a chance to blog yet since we’ve been here, but I woke up at 6 this morning with elephants on my mind.

We arrived in Bangkok Monday night, stayed there and flew to Chiang Mai on Tuesday. I am safe and sound and already having the time of my life. I was hoping to blog about my adventures daily, but we are so busy and so exhausted when we get back to the hotel at night that I don’t think I will accomplish that goal.

The culture is so different and I am loving living life with a different perspective. I’ll go through my trip more in depth when i return, however here’s what I’ve got for you. We are 12 hours ahead so think futuristicly.

First realization: The heat. I seem to be adjusting okay, drinking water 24/7. The mane just loves it (sarcasm). It really isn’t extremely horrible, but I’ve always loved being hot over cold anyday. Why do I live in Iowa again??

Second realization: Thai people are the same size as me. In the US I’m used to everyone being taller, but here I blend in! Okay obviously not the blonde hair blue eyes thing.. but it sure draws in their attention.

Third realization: Everything here is cheap. The currency is 32 baht for 1 American dollar. I pay no more than a dollar for a meal and have seen the most amazing textiles since I’ve been here. There are street vendors everywhere. We went to the night bazaar (or night market) last night and if you even tried to walk away from a product, they’d drop the price even more.

Fourth realization: I’m not in Kansas anymore Toto. Bye bye pizza and cheeseburgers, hello rice…rice…rice..and more rice. Rice and noodles for breakfast is probably the strangest thing to get to used to. I’ve tried lots of different things already, most with a spice level of around 10…my brother would love it, me however I’m not a huge spicy food person. Even though I may not like spicy, the food is amazing. It’s so so fresh and homemade every single time. The fruit is amazing. Mango, pineapple, guava, and watermelon for breakfast lunch and dinner. Yum yum. Weirdest thi ng so far: all seafood still has its eyes..apparently in the US we’d rather not have the poor creature staring at eyes while we devour it…which I’m perfectly okay with.